April i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
889 
A donkey has assumed tbe lion's skin, but getting 
frightened, the bray soon found out the fraud. On the 
2ud February a catalogue was issued by Messrs. 
Eraser & Co. for a shipment of Japan teas under 
instructions from Messrs. Akita&Co., agents for the 
Japan Black Tea Company, connected will) the Japan- 
ese (jovernmeut and the Board of Agriculture, Japan. 
With audi a long string, people naturally imagined that 
the vendors would sell and introduce their goods to 
the people of Victoria, but nothing of the sort oc- 
curred and after closely imitating the Calcutta tea 
syndicate's style, as you will see by the en- 
closed catalogue. When it came to the point, 
tiny would only sell 102 packages at 5d to Is 3|d 
per lb. This is the joke of the month. The Japan 
tea-i are well made, but lack strength and flavour. 
Our old friends, the Javanese, have also tried this 
market again, but only to Bell 200 packages at7idio 
Is lid. 
Altogether Melbourne teamen have had a lively time 
of it and since the 1st Jany. about 44,000 packages 
of nil kinds of tea have been sold publicly by auction. 
No Ceylon tea lias been sold at auction lately, but 
the hut mail steamer brings a small lot down, which 
no doubt will be offered in a few days. 
A large parcel of coconut oil has reached this from 
Mauritius, but our market cannot take oft' the quantity 
and it will probably bo shipped home. 
Coffee shows signs of improvements but the market 
is still w ell stocked. 
Coir yam and libre have small sale, but rope is 
almost a drug at the moment. 
OPERATIONS OF THE CALCUTTA TEA SYNDI- 
CATE : INDIAN TEA IN AUSTRALIA, THE 
UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 
AND SOUTH AFRICA. 
The Calcutta Tea Syndicate, aided by Messrs. James 
Henty & Co. in Australia and Mr. Sibthorp in the 
United States and Canada, are pushing Indian teas to 
the front, and the South African markets are to be 
tried. We give today, from the Calcutta Daily News, 
the letter in which Mr. Magor, as Honorary Secret- 
ary of the Syndicate; aunounces the wise decision 
that the Syndicate sh ml I continue its operations. 
It appears that only 700,0001b. of Indian teas had 
been shipped to Australia between May 1S8I aud 
January 1S82, while Messrs. Henly & Co., who have 
done so much to introduce Indian tea, state that 
Evady the demand is equal to 1 mill. on or \\ million 
pound-) in a year. This is certainly a good beginning, 
■Bflidering that tbe brokers and dealers iu ihe China 
teas whereby they made their large profits, had it all 
their own way until October 1830, when " the tea of 
the future" was ablo to asset t its superior merits, iu 
the face of prejnd ice most, bigotto.l and bitter. It is in 
ipitoof interested oppositi n and of China tea (much 
of which is such unwholesome rubbish that a special 
l»w Inn had to bo passed), thai Indian tea is muking 
way in Australia. It has to thank its own merits 
and the bravo efforts of Mr. J. <>. Moody in Mel- 
Kirne ntid Mr. Jus. Inglis iu Sydney. Our readers 
will notice that tens in tins, though objected to 
at first, sold well in Melbourne, and that small 
neatly made up and decorated packages are do- 
HjMrated in America. Besides what Messrs. Doano 
Jt Co. of Chicago say, there is an elaborate letter from 
Mr. Sibthorp, which, with suitable comments, wo 
llinll k' v 'u in future issue. Australia now consumes, 
in round numbers, 20 millions of pounds of tea, and 
the United States and Canada together about 100 
millions. For South Africa we have not got the 
figures at hand. In the aggregate here are markets 
which approach even that of Great Britain iu im- 
portance. To change the taste of a whole people, even 
though the taste is a perverted one in favor of burnt 
teas, as in America, or weak, "fusionless" stuff on 
the one hand aud black "post aud rail" tea on the 
other, as in Australia, is no easy task. But it i.s being 
attempted and will be successful, notwithstanding the 
misrepresentation instead of support which those en- 
gaged iu the arduous work receive from the " or- 
gan of the teaplanteis " (?) and others in Iudia as 
well as the abuse of interested parties in Australia. 
Planting in Natal —We believe that coffee has so 
far been a failure in Natal, and that a Commission was 
recently appointed to take all the evidence tnai could be 
gathered on the spot, with a view to deciding whether the 
experiment was worth continuing. The failure of coffee 
seemed to be due to the presence of the borer, and the 
insufficiency of the rainfall. Most of the experimental 
plantations are within easy distance of the sea-coast 
as are the sugar-cane gardens. Tea is also pro- 
nounced a failure in Natal. Large sums of money- 
have been sunk in trying to grow it, but the climate 
seems to be against it. The new Indian emigrant 
coolies are not favorably received by the European 
laborers on the spot, the wages for which are unduly 
lowered. Those interested in the emigration experi- 
ment are divided as to its success, one party holding 
that it has been completely successful, while the other 
believes it to be detrimental to the prospects of the 
colony.— South of India Observer. [The same contro- 
versy rages in Queensland and all over the Australian 
colonies. The question is a different one, but if cheap 
human labour cannot be obtained for sugar and other 
tropical culture, machinery must be multiplied and to 
in the end, dear white labour will be largely 
superseded. There is outdoor and field-work in 
the tropics which whites cannot perform and live. —Ed.] 
JorEHATJT Tea Company.— The managing director 
of the Jorehaut Tea Company (Limited) has issued 
a circular to the shareholders in which he says that 
the crop of 1SSI has amounted to 1,029,000 lb. of tea 
being un increase of 30,500 lb. over that of 18S0. 
It was estimated that tbe erou would amount to about 
1,138.400 lb. should favourable weather be exp rieuctd 
and no blights occur to check the growth of flashes. 
The decrease in the quantity manufactured may be 
ascribed to unseasonable weather during a portion of 
the year, to the plants on some of th ; plantations 
having been checked iu their productiveness by insect 
I blights, and to the removal of the leaves from the 
plains at au earlier period than usual in order to 
produce finer teas. So far, the salcj of the crop 
have amounted to 430,95^ lb., at an average price 
of Is. 6.96 I per lb., which is about 4^d per lb. over 
the average price realized for a similar quantity of 
the crop of 18S0. In consequence, however, of a fall 
iu the maiket value of pokovs and the liner descrip- 
tions of Indian teas since November last, this average 
price will be reduced by tho sale o herein infer 
of the crop at tho r.ves now prevni'ing, Tukiuit, 
however, a low valnatio > fox the balanc of tho teas, 
it may be reasonably cxprct.-d that I lie verage p ice 
of the whole crop will yield a profit equivalent to 
a dividend of upwurns ot 12 per cent. Tho uncert- 
ainty ai to the prices which will be realised for 
the largo portion of tho crop yet to In- diapMed < f. 
and the small amount of reserve fuud at present in 
hand, preclude the directors from recommending tho 
i payment of au interna dividend.— Ocerland MaU, 
